'Yes. I'm here at the behest of the Greater Houses.' Iad hesitated, swallowed a gulp of air for courage, and spoke. 'They sent me because you and I have dealt honestly in our crossing out of the empire.'
Anji looked at Mai. As if bothered by a bug, she scratched at her right ear with her left hand. 'Go on,' said Anji, looking back to Iad.
Well, now things were getting interesting. Shai moved closer, to hear better.
'They thought you would trust me where you might not trust another. They said to tell you first of all that a certain reeve, called Joss, has been discovered in the assizes prison where he was accidentally placed after a case of mistaken identity. He's now been released, and taken no harm from his sojourn in the prison.'
'Released? Unharmed?'
In an undertone, Mai murmured a prayer of thanks to the Merciful One.
'Yes,' said Iad.
'A bold if convenient move.'
'They hope this will show you they are ready to deal-' Breaking off, he wiped his brow nervously. 'The hells! You must know they did no such thing. I mean, the reeve is free, and has taken no lasting harm, but it wasn't the council who released him. Someone else rescued him-a hierodule, of all people-and brought him in to confront Master Feden about this news she had of an army approaching-'
'Hold. Hold.' Anji raised a hand, looked at Mai, then back to the caravan master. 'An army?'
Mai's eyes had gone very wide. An army? Had the empire sent soldiers after Anji? Shai saw movement in the shadows: the Qin soldiers, those not on watch, were stirring, coming in close to listen. Everyone was on edge.
Master Iad swallowed like a man wishing he could eat his words rather than speak them. 'It's like this. This is the question the council sent me to ask. Can a company of two hundred defeat an army of three thousand?' Having gotten the words out, he wiped his mouth as against a foul taste.
'An army of three thousand?' said Chief Tuvi. 'Are you sure of that number?'
'The hierodule saw the army earlier today, and got a decent count: about five companies, which would be three thousand men more or less. Several days' march east of here, Hornward, that is, on the West Track.'
'How could she have seen that today, and then have rescued the reeve from Olossi's prison this night?' asked Anji. 'If they're several days' march east of here?'
Iad clapped a hand to his forehead. 'She got a ride to Olossi from one of Argent Hall's reeves, but she says the entire hall is corrupt.. Aui! It's a complicated tale. Then a lad rode in after nightfall, saying his village had been attacked by a strike force and everyone laid to the sword, killing and burning.'
'The torch we saw,' said Anji to Chief Tuvi.
'That would explain it,' agreed the chief.
'The reeve, Joss, confirmed that Argent Hall had been corrupted. And Master Feden confessed that he had made a deal with some villains out of the north who it seems meant to betray him all along, for they said nothing to him of sending an army!'
'So what, precisely, is it that you want?'
'An answer to the question! That's all I agreed to. Can a troop of two hundred defeat an army of three thousand?'
Anji laughed. 'Not in a pitched battle, with mounted forces, such as I command. A company of two hundred would be foolish to attempt it.'
Master Iad relaxed, shoulders sinking and lips going slack. 'Eh. Ah. Exactly. I told them so, but they are so desperate, they insisted I come.'
Mai raised a hand. 'Master Iad. Before you step away from a sale you believe you cannot make, let us hear your entire proposition. You can't simply have been sent to ask a question.'
'I told them it would be impossible,' said Master Iad, 'but they insisted.'
'You treated us fairly, so it is only fair that, in return, we hear you out,' said Anji, and the poor man started, so surprised was he. 'Did you say the Lesser Houses are involved in this transaction? That they knew of it?'
'The Lesser Houses? No, not at all. They knew nothing of it. Even now, only a few know the truth, for it was just laid before Master Feden a short while ago. The Lesser Houses and the guilds may seem numerous to you, but they have no power in the council. I come at the behest of the Greater Houses. Aui! Now that I know what is upon us-an army of three thousand! — I'm cleaning out my warehouse and dependents and leaving at first light, as soon as I get back to the city, unless they've locked me out, which I wouldn't put past them. The Greater Houses have destroyed themselves with their own greed! They brought this calamity down on Olossi, and the rest of us will be ruined with them!'
'Well, Mai,' said Anji, looking at her with an expression Shai could not begin to interpret. The captain raised a hand to his lips. When had he gotten Mai's wolf-sigil ring? He touched it to his lips, then nodded at her, waiting.
'Can you do it?' she asked.
Anji smiled, as Shai imagined a wolf might grin-in a manner of speaking-when it spots a helpless fawn caught in a mire. 'Go on, Master Iad. Now I am interested.'
As dawn rose, the caravan master began to talk.
42
A quartet of guardsmen accompanied Joss to Crow's Gate. Although he had bathed again in the court of Master Feden's compound, and had been given clean clothes in the style of those worn by Olossi's militiamen, he insisted on wearing his leather trousers instead of a clean linen pair. For the moment he regretted it, as they were damp from being rinsed and wiped down, so his legs chafed where they rubbed the saddle. The lingering stench of his captivity caught in his throat.
Crow's Gate was still barred for the night. In the half-light that presages dawn, he watched as another rider approached them. She was riding one horse and leading a packhorse and a spare on a lead.
'You can't have been to the temple and back by now,' he said.
'No. As it happens, I ran into another hierodule in town, a kalos, in fact, a fellow I know and trust. He'll take the message to the temple in my place. That gives me more time to make some distance west. What did you decide?' She indicated the four guardsmen, who had looked her over and then away. She was subdued, and with her hair pulled tightly back and wrapped into a knot at the back of her head and her body concealed in a loose knee- length jacket, she was a woman you wouldn't give a second glance. Not unless you knew what she was.
She smiled, teasing him for staring at her so.
He wasn't usually taken so off guard. 'Oh, eh, yes. These good men here will escort me south to the intersection with the Old Stone Road. I believe it will be safe to call Scar from there.'
'Yes. You're less likely to be seen. I expect a certain reeve from Argent Hall to fly in soon after dawn. It's best he be given no chance to see your eagle.'
'Why?'
'Why shouldn't he see your eagle?' There was something more than teasing in that pull of her lips. She had a way of raising her eyebrows and tilting her chin that was deeply sensual, even triumphant. She was a woman confident of her power and, in that, desperately attractive.
'Why do you think the same reeve will come back?'
'Marshal Yordenas will send someone back to make sure those mercenaries leave. I am pretty sure Horas will volunteer, say he knows the situation best, so best he be the one to supervise. I admit, a lot of the plan depends on it being him who returns. It's a gamble. But we've only got one throw before we're ruined, so we may as well be reckless.'
'I still expect this is all a ploy to catch me off my guard, or capture my eagle.'
'If you say so. Had I known you were so full of yourself, I'd have known I need only wait until you fill up with the poison of self-love and strangle on it.'
Seeing that he had begun to lose her interest made him try harder by shifting ground. 'What do you gain from this gamble?'
Her expression was closed to him. She drew her horses aside as Crow's Gate was opened and the first folk
